Alright, so the other day, I had this sudden craving for something sweet, you know? But I wasn’t in the mood for anything complicated or that would take hours. Halwa immediately came to mind. It’s one of those things that’s supposed to be quick and easy, and most of the time, it actually is.
Getting My Stuff Together
First thing I did was rummage through my pantry. You don’t need a whole lot for a basic halwa, which is great. I grabbed the semolina – the fine kind, suji, or rava, whatever you call it. Then, of course, ghee. You can’t really skimp on ghee if you want that authentic taste, trust me on this. Sugar, naturally. And some water. For a bit of fancy, I also fished out some cardamom pods and a handful of cashews and raisins. Sometimes I use almonds, sometimes pistachios, depends on what I have or feel like.
The Roasting Ritual
So, I plonked my trusty heavy-bottomed pan on the stove. A good pan helps, less chance of burning. I spooned in a generous amount of ghee – maybe about half the amount of semolina I was planning to use. Once the ghee melted and got slightly warm, not smoking hot, mind you, I tipped in the semolina.
Now, this is the part where you gotta be a bit patient. Low to medium heat is your friend here. I started stirring. And stirring. And stirring. You want to roast that semolina until it gets a light golden brown color and you start smelling that lovely nutty aroma. It’s a bit like making a roux, I guess, but with semolina. If you rush this and crank up the heat, you’ll just burn it, and burnt semolina tastes awful. No coming back from that. So, I just kept it moving, making sure it roasted evenly. Took about, oh, 7-8 minutes, I reckon.
Adding the Liquids and Sweetness
While the semolina was doing its thing, I quickly got the water and sugar ready. Some people make a proper sugar syrup. Me? I often just heat up the water and dissolve the sugar in it. For about a cup of semolina, I usually go for about two to two-and-a-half cups of water and maybe three-quarters of a cup of sugar. I like it sweet, but not tooth-achingly so. I also tossed in the crushed cardamom pods into the water as it heated up, so the flavor infuses nicely. And threw the raisins in there too, so they plump up.
Once the semolina was perfectly golden and fragrant, I carefully, and I mean carefully, poured the hot sugar-water-cardamom-raisin mixture into the pan. This is where it gets a bit lively – it sputters and steams like crazy, so stand back a bit. I kept stirring vigorously as I poured, to avoid any lumps. Lumpy halwa is just sad.
The Final Stretch
The mixture thickens up pretty fast. I kept stirring continuously as it bubbled away. The semolina absorbs all that liquid and starts to come away from the sides of the pan. This doesn’t take long at all, maybe another 5 minutes or so. During this time, I also tossed in the cashews. I like to add them a bit earlier so they soften slightly. You’ll know it’s done when it’s glossy and has that nice, spoonable, pudding-like consistency.
And that was pretty much it! I took it off the heat. Sometimes I add a tiny bit more ghee at the end for extra gloss and richness, but this time I skipped it. It already looked good enough.
Served it warm. There’s nothing quite like a bowl of warm, homemade halwa. Quick, easy, and hits the spot every single time. No fuss, no fancy equipment, just straightforward good stuff.